5 Key Takeaways

• 1

  UCLA received a 4-year, $2.7 million NIH grant to study how Zika virus damages the developing eye and identify potential treatments.

• 2

  Zika infection during pregnancy can damage infants’ retinas and optic nerves, causing lifelong visual impairment.

• 3

  Earlier team research identified host proteins that may defend against Zika infection and candidate compounds that inhibited the virus.

• 4

  The project will study Zika using retinal pigment epithelium cells, human stem cell-derived retinal organoids, and infected newborn mice.

• 5

  Researchers will test whether candidate antivirals reduce retinal damage in newborn mice and whether they disrupt normal retinal development.